Last month GRESB announced that its management had purchased the business from its parent GBCI. GRESB was established in 2009 as the Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark by three pension funds who wanted to assess and benchmark the Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) and other related performance of real assets, providing standardized data to capital … Continue Reading
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has released a draft National Recycling Strategy and is seeking public comment through December 4, 2020, with the goal of finalizing it in early 2021. Maybe not since Plato wrote about the value of reusing waste in the fourth century BC has recycling faced the challenges that we are seeing right now. … Continue Reading
Last Friday, Hudson Yards, the largest private real estate development in the country opened, but what the $25 Billion project may become best known for is that is designed for resilience from its giant “submarine doors” underground that can be closed to keep out storm surges to its own power plant that can keep the … Continue Reading
RELi 2.0, a comprehensive rating system that provides strategies and tools for resilient building and design, is expected to be launched on Monday, November 12th. The launch of RELi 2.0 is significant because it is widely suggested, just as a Phase I Environmental Site Assessment is now standard practice in nearly every commercial real estate … Continue Reading
For the uninitiated GRESB assesses the sustainability performance of real estate and infrastructure portfolios worldwide. GRESB is the global environmental, social and governance (ESG) benchmark for real estate assets. GRESB’s stated “mission is to enhance and protect shareholder value by assessing and empowering sustainability practices in the real asset sector.” They do that by offering … Continue Reading
While much of the media hyperbole has focused on the Trump Administration’s 2018 Budget request of $5.7 Billion for the Environmental Protection Agency, a reduction of $2.6 billion, or 31%, from the 2017 level of funding, little attention has been paid to specific priorities including the resultant opportunities for green building. One of the key … Continue Reading
SITES is a sustainable landscape rating system. SITES is modeled after the LEED green building rating system. And while it is a standalone tool for measuring landscape sustainability, in June 2015, Green Business Certification Inc., the USGBC associated certification body for LEED, announced it had acquired the exclusive rights to the SITES rating system, its … Continue Reading
Last month the U.S. Green Building Council announced that its certification body, the Green Business Certification Inc. will now administer the Green Garage Certification Program with its acquisition of the Green Parking Council. In spite of the speculation over whether Uber means more car miles or less and what impact Zipcar and other car sharing … Continue Reading
GBCI has changed its name to Green Business Certification Inc. .. Members of the environmental industrial complex and others that deal in matters of LEED should review their contracts and other documents and update them now.… Continue Reading
USGBC had advised the deadline is next week to submit a project to be LEED certified before year end (without the time and expense of an expedited review).… Continue Reading
On Wednesday, I began a review of the Green Building Certification Institute’s ("GBCI") LEED Certification Challenge policy. There are three reasons why the LEED Certification Challenge Policy creates significant risk for all parties involved in a LEED-certified project: (1) Any person can challenge a building’s LEED certification; (2) Any and all LEED points can be challenged; … Continue Reading
The Green Building Certification Institute’s (GBCI) use of third-party certification bodies did not last long. You may recall that in 2009, the United States Green Building Council (USGBC) outsourced green building certification to the Green Building Certification Institute: "LEED certification became so popular that the USGBC had to begin allowing certification through independent certification bodies. . . … Continue Reading